Customizing Spaces With Eco Geekery

July 17, 2014May 18, 2015

Boss Key Chest

I’ve wanted one of these FOREVER. I didn’t want to spend time learning carpentry, so I commissioned someone to make me the box, and then I painted it. The proportions are slightly different (it’s taller and slimmer than in-game), but it fits a lot of stuff:

Why yes, I did decide to publish this post before completing the stenciling on the inside of the box!

If you’re feeling that the (exterior) paintwork is not intricate enough, that’s because this is a Majora’s Mask boss key chest, not one from Ocarina of Time. Those things are nuts and I donothavethepatience:

Although there is someone who did have the patience, and it turned out pretty great

To make one of these, you will need:

chest or box

blue, yellow, black, white paint

paintbrush

paper or cardboard

scissors

masking tape

ruler or measuring tape

snacks and a great soundtrack (Zelda’s 25th Anniversary Symphony did the trick for me)

So here is the box in its original form:

Since the design is pretty symmetrical, I measured pieces of file folders to be 1/4 of each surface, drew the design and cut out the stencil, then painted 1 quarter, rotated and painted diagonal quarter, then waited for the paint on the stencil to dry before flipping over and doing the other 2 quarters. The front is only vertically symmetrical, so I did two halves, rather than quarters.

Sorry for the crappy iPad pictures!

Paint! I couldn’t find the yellow I wanted. The lemon yellow I found was not opaque, so it didn’t show up on top of the blue. I found an opaque butter yellow which I used as a primer (see the left panel in the pic below):

Yep, that’s the inside of the lid. When Link opens the chest, the inside is exactly the same as the outside, so I decided to be as painstakingly accurate as possible and paint the whole interior. Of course, the stencils don’t fit perfectly on the inside, because the surface of the wood is slightly smaller. This doesn’t happen in game because with N64 graphics, objects have no thickness!

I used tape as a ‘stencil’ to make the yellow lines along the edges sharp. No pic of tape being used, but check out these sharp lines:

wowmuch professionalvery line wow such sharp

It’s slightly rough around the edges, and the paint coverage is different in some places, but I think it works since N64 graphics are kinda like that:

And yeah, the lock and handles are not ‘canon’, but will prevent tiny Oooccoo Jr fingers from getting smooshed when the lid comes down like a Megaton Hammer. (And/or prevent the precious contents of the box from being moved, lost, or damaged)